Delusional

Gerald is a psychiatrist, semi-retired. “So,” I said last week, mocking him, “how does it make you feel, Gerry? Angry, hurt, bitter, resentful? Let it all out. You can share with me, in this safe space.”

“I’m pissed,” he said. “Now knock it off.”

We were talking about Comrade Premier Horgan’s plans to steal $3,600 from his retirement nestegg in 2019, and then $9,000 annually thereafter. You see, Gerald has a small practice and a condo in Calgary (where he is licensed), but spends about eight months a year at his place in Kelowna. He and Debra bought it in 1998 (she passed two years ago) for just over $400,000. Now BC Assessment tells the doctor it’s worth a tad more than $900,000.

“But that’s not my fault,” says the doc. “I can’t help it if the market goes up. How does that possibly, in any way, shape or form, make me a speculator?”

So here’s the problem. In days BC will legitimize a ‘speculation tax’ designed to Hoover money from people who own a second property in major populated/tourist areas. They can be BC residents who have a vacation home or any owner with a principal residence in Alberta, Ontario (or anywhere else in Canada). And those evil foreigners, of course, who already have to pay a 20% head tax for the right to purchase in the province.

The lefties running the government in Victoria are adamant, doctrinaire and ideologically insufferable. “There’s a housing crisis in British Columba,” says the finance minister, Carole James. “The public wants us to address it. It’s going ahead.”

Despite that, most local politicians are apoplectic. Nanaimo, Kelowna, the Local Mainland Government Association, as well as the local business organizations, are warning that this could be a kiss of death for development. The message it sends to guys like Gerry is clear: Bug off. You’re a second-class citizen. You will be penalized for investing in our community.

The rationale is that by forcing people with two houses to bail, or rent them out (for at least six months a year), house values will fall and affordability rise. Half right. The entire market will be brought down, equity for everyone will diminish, recent buyers will be crushed, and prices will fade. But that doesn’t mean homeownership will rise, since sales always collapse in declining conditions. It’s already happening, with Vancouver transactons at the lowest point in decades.

The tax is punitive. In 2019 it will be 0.4% of the assessed value of a property, rising to a full 1% the next year for out-of-province owners and 0.5% for locals. (Non-Canadian owners, or even Canadian citizens who belong to ‘satellite’ families, will pay a huge 2%.) To avoid it, owners have to sell (good luck with that) or rent for at least half the year (good luck finding part-time tenants).

“I stay in my place way more than half a year,” Gerry tells me. “It’s my spiritual home – the place I will retire to in five or six years. Renting it with all my stuff in it for six months is a joke. So this tax is extortion – taxation without representation. Arbitrary. Pure discrimination.”

Of course. This is also an envy tax. A levy on wealth since in BC, owning land/property/house is equated with being rich. The place is now run by a government doing nothing about true speculation, flipping or unearned capital gains, instead applying classic leftist logic to a social problem: tax the poop out of it.

So the speculation tax will join the foreign buyer tax, the Van vacant homes tax and the luxury property tax in a concerted government effort to crash the real estate market. This is concurrent with the mortgage stress test, rising mortgage rates as bond yields spike, and at least three looming Bank of Canada interest rate increases. No wonder sales have tumbled across the province and prices have already been pared by a third in areas like the tony Westside. Now average homeowners across the Lower Mainland, in the Okanagan and on the Island can also see their equity sucked off.

The dipper retort: “When a property owner holds onto vacant homes and benefits from rising property value, that is speculation. This behaviour is taking homes out of the housing market, driving vacancy rates lower, and making it harder for British Columbians to find a place to live.”

Of course Gerry’s house is not ‘vacant.’ He spends months there. Pays local property taxes, plus feeds more into the pockets of neighbourhood utilities, repair guys, gardeners and merchants. He has no kids in local schools and consumes no healthcare. But he pays for it. And if his house rose in value, well, he had no hand in that. Mr. Market did it. He took no taxable gain, and the market may well erase the increase. Finally, how many locals are there who want to spend $900,000 on a house in Kelowna and can’t buy one now? There are 110 for sale at the moment in exactly that price range.

Apparently most BCers support this delusion. But that won’t last too long.

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I just really don’t have any sympathy for these people. The NDP ran on addressing the housing problem. They told people more than a year ago they were introducing these taxes. It’s not like they sprang them on people with no notice.

No, taxing is not a perfect solution but when the BoC leaves rates as low for as long as they have and the fed’ govt does everything they can to increase demand for housing what are provincial politicians supposed to do? Sit by and do nothing while the problem gets worse and worse? This is the problem with the ‘rugged individualism, laissez faire, let the free market decide, libertarianism’ that we get from this blog.

Don’t believe me? go on craigslist in the vancouver area and see what $1500 1 bedroom gets you. Let me know if you can even find one.

Unfortunately, this is just another government tax grab, exploiting its citizens.
This money will be used to hire more government workers and fund their pensions.
Grab the easy money and run!
Sad but true

It stands to reason you can’t see the reason for the tax Garth. You’ve expended so much effort denying foreign buyers are a problem that you can’t see this is the only way to capture revenue for BCers from property owners who don’t pay any form of income tax, or when they do, it’s pennies paid on income from social benefits Canada is stupid enough to make them eligible for. The relatively little they paid on standard property tax went nowhere near covering the cost their buying had done. Social housing is expensive and thanks to foreign buyers BC and Vancouver are now having to build it for professionals, just to keep the locally economy viable.

Gerry is quite welcome to start a practice in Kelowna and the leave the snowbound hell of Calgary behind, why wait 5 years?

Great stuff. Poor guy, two homes – one his “spiritual” one. Having to have just one home.

Meanwhile families are crammed into apartments.

Garth you are peddling something that doesn’t match reality here.

Do markets clear or not? If prices fall enough they will clear. If they don’t and transactions severely fall, those staying in the market now have a cost of carry. Before they didn’t have this, that’s why the housing market is such a popular place to “invest”.

They will clear, price discovery will occur. That’s how markets work. Let the market work with the correct pricing system, which is that those with two “homes” should pay for the privilege through the nose.

1% is a lot? Sorry, most US cities have property taxes over 1%. B.C. property taxes are way too low.

Homes are not investments. If you want to invest buy an ETF or AAPL. Why anyone would want to “invest” in RE where jealousy can destroy your wealth and liquidity at a whim is beyond me. And as for tenants? Being a landlord is way more work an hassle than it’s worth.
This is not a property tax. It’s a surtax. – Garth

Please do not say that ‘most BCers support this delusion’. The powers that be are not there with a mandate from the voters of British Columbia. They are advancing their agenda as quickly as they can, because they know that the moment this little charade is over and the voters go back to the polls, they will be eradicated from power for a generation. Go ahead Dippers. Do your worst. Tick tock.

Making life and reproduction unaffordable or impossible for any group in whole or in part is genocide under international law. PC, personal choice, market forces, or desire for tax free profits is no defence. Real estate is a place to live. It isn’t an investment or a GD lottery ticket with a guarantee to win the jackpot.

No sympathy for Gerald and his ilk; I’m a conservative and want government out of my business for most things but the current state of housing is an exception. I am losing out on potential employees because they can’t afford to raise a family in BC any more. Gerald should sell at market prices, invest the proceeds and stay at The Grande like I do when visiting Kelowna. Doing so will help the local economy as well as return housing stock to be purchased by locals.

What’s preventing your employee from buying one of the 110 similar houses now for sale in the same town? How does taxing this Albertan unfairly help your business? Weird conservative. – Garth

So, why do people continue to throw their precious money into silly things that require expensive maintenance and get taxed continuously?

By the way, I found a toonie in the parking lot of the local grocery store today. Wasn’t too shy to pick it up and put it in my pocket. People seem to be very careless with their money. Thanks careless people who make bad decisions.

And then they wonder how the 1% become the 1%.

You do realize even the 1% get a high finding a lonely toonie just lying there in a parking lot.

It is inevitable that governments will start to tax home ownership, the largest reserve of wealth in the country. It’ll start on second homes worth over X million, but over the years it will apply to more and more residences.

If BC had electoral reform and a system like or similar to that of say France, the Greens would have been eliminated in the first round and the final runoff would have been LIB vs NDP which would have resulted in a majority for one of those two parties. The NDP might not be in power. The Green Party would not be holding the NDP hostage and a pipeline might be happnin’.

#15 Watcher on 10.07.18 at 6:27 pm
Please do not say that ‘most BCers support this delusion’. The powers that be are not there with a mandate from the voters of British Columbia. They are advancing their agenda as quickly as they can, because they know that the moment this little charade is over and the voters go back to the polls, they will be eradicated from power for a generation. Go ahead Dippers. Do your worst. Tick tock.
……….
You might be surprised how the people of BC actually feel about their Premier (unlike you and Garth):https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/poll-popular-premier-saskatchewan-scott-moe-1.4714926

What’s preventing your employee from buying one of the 110 similar houses now for sale in the same town? How does taxing this Albertan unfairly help your business? Weird conservative. – Garth
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Those 110 similar houses in the 900k range ? Not too many people who live and have to earn a living in Kelowna can afford 900k.

#26 Lead Paint on 10.07.18 at 7:22 pm
It is inevitable that governments will start to tax home ownership, the largest reserve of wealth in the country. It’ll start on second homes worth over X million, but over the years it will apply to more and more residences.
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Wow a tax on property, brilliant! Lets call it, um, property tax! Oh wait, that’s already taken b/c its already done… What about sales at time of transfer? Land transfer tax maybe?

That is BS. Buying a house does not mean investing in a community. Investing in the community means doing something that helps creating jobs in that community, improve the infrastructure, services, etc – not buying a house for yourself!
And the good doctor may move his practice to Kelowna, I assume they must have their fair share of loonies there.

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As a long time reader, personally the gist of this blog to me has been owning housing is not a right if you can’t afford it / do so by putting so much of your capital into it the you are totally enslaved by it… Otherwise I think you may mean something from the Stalinist subpage on some Marxist-Leninist blog somewhere…

Actually a vexatious state making a punitive seizure of capital or property is, short of eminent domain examples, is a fairly non-1st world problem…

Points for the bulldog mural though keeping with canine theme – well played sir.

#28 FOUR FINGERS WATSON on 10.07.18 at 7:30 pm
If BC had electoral reform and a system like or similar to that of say France, the Greens would have been eliminated in the first round and the final runoff would have been LIB vs NDP which would have resulted in a majority for one of those two parties. The NDP might not be in power. The Green Party would not be holding the NDP hostage and a pipeline might be happnin’.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-round_system
……….
That is a pretty big “IF”! Have not heard anyone suggest the “Two Round system” for Canada or BC. Interesting that France is one of the few countries in Western Europe that does not use PR….and they all seem to be doing just fine. As well, it would be hard to believe the 17% of the voters who voted for the Greens would be likely to instead vote Liberal….more than likely NDP….and, you may have noticed, they are not in favour of the pipeline as presented.

#35 Remembrancer on 10.07.18 at 7:58 pm
#25 We’ll Soon See Who is Swimming Naked on 10.07.18 at 7:16 pm
Wow! Finally the slumlords will be identified and have to pay their fair share of taxes and fees. Excellent!
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Huh? Though not at all the point of tonight’s blog, “Gerry” like your slumlords, is already paying taxes and contributing to the local economy – what is a fair share then?

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Gouvernments will find any excuse to bring in new taxes. This was just an excuse to do so and they found a way to convince voters to accept it. Nothing else. Gotta give credit to the BC gouvernment to be smarter than the average bear. This is simply just another consumption tax.

#3 #6 #23 have echoed my sentiment completely. No need for me to chime in on what I would normally say on this subject. Prices need to come down in order to have viable communities for the next generation of citizens, for businesses to recruit and then retain employees at all levels, and for the marginalized to at least find some housing solution (not 1500 per month studios in YVR). This person’s problem is regrettable, but there is a much broader landscape that needs to be addressed.
How many households are there in YVR in particular, where the reported annual income is a pittance, and they are living in 3M+ houses, with either the house vacant, or have occupants using up medical services, going to schools etc.., and the main breadwinner working overseas shielding all earned income from the CRA to contribute to the payment of these services. A 1-time transfer tax for a house purchase is not sufficient in my view. These “low-income” households in exclusive neighborhoods are not simply retirees who won the housing lottery by selling door-to-door avon supplies in the 1970s.

What a bunch of rubes! I cannot believe that Canadians have become this stupid. How the hell did you guys become such pushovers? Own a house for years as a vacation destination and then the govt one day says you will be penalized as a speculator? LOL! You deserve what you get for voting in these crooks.

FOUR FINGERS WATSON on 10.07.18 at 6:51 pm
So the speculation tax will join the foreign buyer tax, the Van vacant homes tax and the luxury property tax in a concerted government effort to crash the real estate market.
………………………..

You forgot to mention the upcoming carbon tax on pot. It’s gonna be yuge !

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To say nothing about the thousands of tons of burning pot contribution to Global warming, or is it called climate change……

How about a “drug smokers” tax, like “shop supplies” added at your auto repair shop? To fight the weather changes .

We bought a number of these, including the one with the tribesmen attacking the shopping carts. Of course we paid very little (the shopping cart one we got for under a hundred pounds). Interesting to see how much they go for now. Kind of predictable back in the day, when everyone was like “where will the next Banksy pop up” and we were like “you don’t have to really wait, you can just pick up his stuff for peanuts.

He did this stunt back in the day, printing fake bank notes and then having them fall on the heads of people at a market in the UK. At the time, shop keepers were pissed right royally at this, as a bunch of fake bank notes ended up in their tills. Now the fake notes are worth far more than the real ones, if you can find them.

I applaud this dude. He never had any interest in making money off his stuff (sold it to us for almost nothing). Instead of capitalising on his new found fame, he shreds it.

Some men want success. Some want love, some want power. Some just want to see the world burn. And some, well, they find truth and freedom, and then they give it to us, for free, and fight against any attempt to profit off of it.

For me it’s a huge contradiction. Conservatives want to have a dynamic, meritocratic society to bring about greater wealth for all. Then they turn around and argue for a rigid society, divided by whose parents and did and did not own land. With no cost of carry, no inheritance tax.

We had this under feudal times. Proponents of feudalism designed a society just like this. And it worked.

Why not tax land, not labour? Some conservatives might answer honestly: because I want to lord it over people without working!

Yet when real estate collapses no one will be buying it because it will be perceived as a terrible investment and will be told stories of people who lost their life savings buying real estate and only a fool would buy it now.
Then it will rise again and people will whine about missing out again for another generation, seen this happen before.

Back in the day my businesses were labour intensive…one of the first things I let any new staff know is that they were to bring me solutions, not problems.

Don’t just dump a problem in my lap, present me with the issue and your solution. This caused the staff to hold conversations, drill closer to what really was the issue and often come to consensus on a way out.

So, Garth, you have dumped the problem…what is the solution?

I don’t offer one because I live out in the back of the beyond quite comfortably and don’t really give a poo.

The market was rolling over before the NDP took power. These are just excuses to tax. – Garth

Surtax, speccer tax, Double tax….whatever.
PEI has charged non residents double property tax for decades.
I bought as a non resident and paid the double property tax without bitching.
Its the cost of owning an out of province(or country) piece of heaven.

And as someone has already pointed out. Its not like this new tax is a surprise….
Sell, lock in your gains and rent.

Oh,
Right……
There’s no places to rent because all the housing has been snapped up by residents and non residents and there in lies the rub.
Full 6 months of the year or empty ….it isnt available to the VOTERS of BC.

Not a lot of sympathy for non residents bitching and moaning about the rising cost of ownership levied in govt fees especially when their property has doubled in value.
Since the people that live here either cant afford to buy OR have no place to live because the rental vacancy rate is near zero.

Lots of angry voters out here are cheering the Dippers on and personally……I cant wait for a major housing realignment and if the economy suffers…..so be it.

Property tax in PEI is 50% higher for non-residents, not double. If you are there 183 days a year there is no surtax. – Garth

Maybe the fallout from Fukashima is driving everyone on the left coast insane. Or maybe lefties are insane to begin with?

I’m not a religious man, but I do know that the 7th commandment is “thou shalt not steal” and the tenth commandment is “thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s goods”. Socialism is therefore a sin and all socialists are going to hell. Let’s hope they don’t drag us all down with them first.

And let us not forget that the government created the housing bubble in the first place, through zero interest rates at the fed level and restrictive zoning practices at the local level. Zoning practices are responsible for the lack of supply, not speculators.

Anyway if you own property in BC, even if it’s not in the affected areas, you should sell. Unfortunately the cat may already be out of the bag though. Prepare for massive losses. God be by the side of the highly leveraged, for they are about to walk through the valley of the shadow of bankruptcy.

Anyway what is about to happen in Vancouver couldn’t happen to a nicer group of people. If they thought being “priced out” of the market was bad, wait until people find out what being “priced in” feels like. Those people are going to find out that they just ruined their whole life.

Garth, oh knower of many things, in the event of a foreclosure, what assets are protected and which ones aren’t? Is the bank only entitled to the house, or can they come after other assets if there is a deficiency like your TFSA’s and your RV? Not that people who’ve bought in Vancouver in the last 5 years have money for those sorts of things, but just wondering. I think it’s going to get really bad out there. The “myth of the empty houses” is really just that, a myth. Nobody leaves a house empty unless it makes economic sense to do so. So when all those vacation condos in the Okanagan go up for sale, there won’t be anybody to buy them. With all the part time residents gone, there won’t be any jobs. This is going to suck big time.

Anyway, I wouldn’t worry if I were Gerald. He won’t be paying $9000 a year for long, if he ever does. His condo is going to be worth $400,000 again shortly. Yup, I predict the crash will be 50% in Vancouver right to the Okanagan valley. But the effect will be devastating all the way to Invermere. I have friends with vacation homes there too and they are all panic selling. Or panic listing I should say, nothing is selling.

The time to deal with a bubble is when it’s forming. There is nothing to be done to stop the collapse afterwards. Hasn’t anybody but me read “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds”? We’ve known about this side of human nature since 1841.

Why doesn’t he just work in Kelowna? What’s that, the local job scene doesn’t support it? Taxes are higher than AB? Yet Kelowna can support the house prices that require said job? This situation is usually not an issue until it starts happening too much then the people who work in the city are gonna get squeezed.

2. The local community generate the value of that land via infrastructure, services and community

3. home owners “pay” for this via:
a. property taxes
b. adding to the community themselves as per point 2 – this does not include absentee landlords

The uplift in land value is taken by the private landlord despite not adding to the community except via property taxes. This uplift significantly exceeds property taxes. This represents a free lunch. Property taxes should be higher.

The current state of things is basically, “truth is for losers, dishonesty gets you places, the ruthless abuse of those weaker than you is fun and profitable, take advantage of anyone and anything you can, might is right, lies are fine as long as you are powerful, do as you please and as makes you most happy regardless of the effect on others”

This holds true across the political spectrum and is as much the current mantra of the left as it is the right. No one seems to be able to rise above this. It has become the word on the street.

#33 FOUR FINGERS WATSON on 10.07.18 at 7:44 pm
What’s preventing your employee from buying one of the 110 similar houses now for sale in the same town? How does taxing this Albertan unfairly help your business? Weird conservative. – Garth
…………………………….

Those 110 similar houses in the 900k range ? Not too many people who live and have to earn a living in Kelowna can afford 900k.

Then why boot the doc out? – Garth
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So that there will be nobody who can afford it at that price and so that, as a consequence, the price will be lowered. It is the stated purpose of the tax and it will probably work as intended. The tax is intended to be dirigiste not punitive.

What I learned here is that one should simply shut up and move if you don’t like the circumstances and cant afford to live in your home city. But this is his “spiritual home” whatever the F that means.

I am a single parent that never received a wooden nickel from my ex. My rent has gone up 9.5% in 2 years.

I have never complained about my situation and love life, too bad there’s so many “victims” out there.

Garth, lets start a gofundme for this poor fella. I will add in as much as I can afford for this hard done by wrinkly white male conservative so he can have it a little better…poor guy.

I like your style of putting Fox News labels on Horgan, very refreshing, original and not inflaming. Well played I guess.

I might sympathize with the good doctor if he agrees to pay capital gains on one of the properties. But I’ m guessing while he whines about a few thousand dollars he will continue to bill MSP in the hundreds of thousands annually and when the time comes he will sell his principal residence claiming the exemption and then declare his spiritual home as his new principal residence so it will be exempt in the future.

> Outside of our largest cities, the greatest cost component of a home is the structure, not the lot. – Garth

And is the tax not proposed for metropolitan areas?

Also the tax should be graduated, in that if you have a second home worth $1M close to Vancouver downtown, you clearly pay more than someone who has a similar sized home out in the middle of nowhere, whose value would be far, far less.

I don’t see a contradiction or a problem here, Garth. Possible I see a bit of a politician’s answer, in that you’ve not addressed the main point and slipped in a truism.

The dipper retort: “When a property owner holds onto vacant homes and benefits from rising property value, that is speculation. This behaviour is taking homes out of the housing market, driving vacancy rates lower, and making it harder for British Columbians to find a place to live.”

Garth why is it that the personal stories you throw about people who will be hurt by the speculation tax are always the tiny minority of probably 1% the tax will impact. Lets get real. The massive majority of people who will be paying the tax are locals, out of province and foreign buyers who bought secondary properties in the hopes of prices going higher so they can cash out and make a quick buck. This is what we call speculation and this is who the tax was intended for in its original form. Victoria and Vancouver have amongst the highest percentage of locals buying secondary properties in the world. In Victoria last year almost a quarter of all homes purchased were mainly locals purchasing secondary properties. Most other Canadian cities average about 5%. There are only a handful of cities in the world where people purchasing secondary properties outnumber first time buyers like here. Do you really believe that a quarter of the population here were dreaming about being landlords when they were younger? The speculation tax was much more efficient in its original form where it taxed local speculators as high as out of province and foreign speculators. Unfortunately is was dumbed down due to a corporate and politically conservative backlash. If you can’t afford to pay the speculation tax there is a simple solution. Stop speculating on homes

Pretty sad to see the typical NDP mentality of cheering on an RE collapse and the NDP can do no wrong. The NDP has never EVER been able to develop policies that are ill advised, petty, mean spirited, machiavellian and result in much collateral damage that is either ignored or they are too incompetent to foresee.

As Garth said…NDP moves do NOT equate with, or result in, affordability, but the exact opposite. Buyers wait it out, if they can afford at all(aka Stress tests, B20 etc). Prices will likely dive further..and then we enter into recession, requiring the same stimulus as previously. The BC economy was strongly impacted by RE…so if RE collapses…fallout of many will be out of work= can’t afford to buy.

Other matter of even greater concern is the upcoming NDP referendum on PR voting. This is sliding under the radar screen, and will likely be rigged to effectively give NDP and Greens power in BC for the foreseeable future.
Then we will see their true colours of a socialist paradise hell.

So the speculation tax will join the foreign buyer tax, the Van vacant homes tax and the luxury property tax in a concerted government effort to crash the real estate market. This is concurrent with the mortgage stress test, rising mortgage rates as bond yields spike, and at least three looming Bank of Canada interest rate increases. No wonder sales have tumbled across the province and prices have already been pared by a third in areas like the tony Westside. Now average homeowners across the Lower Mainland, in the Okanagan and on the Island can also see their equity sucked off.

October 2019, Comrade Horgan: “last year the banks pulled back credit. We just didn’t think they would. Worse we didn’t see it until now.”

“Fair share” is when the rich have their money taken away until everyone has the same amount. Fair = equal. Anyone who has more money than someone else has more or less stolen it.

We are, gradually, as people need time to adjust to such revelations, moving towards a $50 minimum wage. But it will also be the maximum wage. All people will earn the same. Property will also be equally divided. No farmer will own his land, instead he will rent it from the state. No company will be privately owned, instead all will own it. But we are managing this transition slowly just as the Catholic Church managed Galileo’s findings, or the theory of evolution for that manner.

The goal of economystics is a free lunch for everyone, and nobody working in the kitchen. Our children will know this paradise.

Except for me of course. My consulting rate will remain at $500 per hour and per diem expenses including my private jet. I can’t stand flying commercial.

#54 Nonplused — “I’m not a religious man, but I do know that the 7th commandment is “thou shalt not steal” and the tenth commandment is “thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s goods”. Socialism is therefore a sin and all socialists are going to hell.”

Old testament, old covenant. New testament, new covenant, viz:

Then the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap him in what he said. So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. Then he said to them, “Whose head is this, and whose title?” They answered, “The emperor’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” — Matthew 22:15-22

This is the website where all those speculator cry babies owning two homes are spouting doom.

Oh, no. End of world is here. We can’t afford this tax.

But we can afford a second home.

The more I read into this the more I realize how much speculation has gone on in BC.

Maybe Garth is right. Maybe Canadians have taken out a few too many loans to buy a few too many properties and now about to find out the consequences of being not so genius, greedy people, price pumping shelter.

The common theme is people the age of 50+. Get these speculators a soother. They will sue, they will scream, they will claim the economy will disappear forever.

To be respected and effective taxes must be faur and equally applied. Slapping people because they’ve had a family cottage for decades, for example, is unjustifiable. High real estate taxes will not benefit those who covet some. Just the opposite. But, you will learn. – Garth

65 thresher – one of the properties will be subject to cap gains. In this case it sounds like Gerry has declared the condo as his principal rez so he will not pay gains on this, so the Kelowna property would be subject to the gain. However, depending on how he has treated the property tax-wise, he may be able to defer that until he actually sells it.

I quite certain that regardless of who was in power in BC.
NDP (Dippers) or Liberals (Conservatives)
The “non resident” tax would have been implemented one way or another.
Voters are pi$$ed at what has been going on and when there is no affordable places to even rent………the populist solution is……..tax tax and more tax.
Either way.
The govt ( NDP OR Liberal) wins!

The great BC tax grab may not turn out so great if the policies do indeed ‘crush’ housing prices. Should the melt occur & housing prices drop then the amount collected should drop as well. Or is there some kind of clause in this envy tax that would prevent any lower assessed value from being used in the calculation?

Boost the biggest ever housing Ponzi scheme with specific pointed policies in order to ensure banks and real estate industry profits and then tax the ‘rich homeowners’ to death in any shape or form possible while destroying savers, retirees and renters with inflation.

Pure genius. And a reminder that what you consider as your own property really isn’t.

Of course it is a theft. The problem is that there is nothing you can do to protect yourself.

What’s preventing your employee from buying one of the 110 similar houses now for sale in the same town? How does taxing this Albertan unfairly help your business? Weird conservative. – Garth

___________________________________________

Hey Garth. News alert. Taxing this Albertan and every other person owning more than one house is going to add fuel to the crash happening and bring affordability well in line pretty soon. Maybe advise your buddy that he should have hit the exits long ago, if he can’t see what is happening.

Right now, you cannot get staff when you need a $145,000 dollar income at current median prices in Kelowna. A median 1 bedroom condo at 700-800 sqft requires a $92,000 income in Kelowna if stress testing.

What is preventing this guys employee from considering working in the area is what was stated above and/or rent for a small condo pushing $2,200 per month in the area.

NDP has the numbers and is smart enough to understand how BC will become a ghost/tourist only town if these prices are not addressed immediately. Look at Vancouver core? Already is a ghost/tourist town visited only by workers commuting in and tourists. 3 million for a home in West Vancouver? This is crooked and rife with fraud. Working people do not push prices up like this.

When people have had enough, they leave, which is why population numbers in Kelowna started reversing in 2017.

It is actually cheaper and easier to secure more affordable rental in the Lower Mainland at present.

If people can’t afford stuff, specifically any kind of roof over their head, they move to where life might make more sense. Just like you have said many times.

ps…NDP, please blanket this wealth tax to all those wealthy people owning multiple properties across the entire province of BC – across Canada even better. Do whatever it takes to get life back in line before the corrupt Liberals took it over and destroyed the province. Just try living in Vancouver for a day if you want to realize the temper tantrums greed has created. A culture fostered by the Liberals.

Taxes do not make anything cheaper. But in this instance they could accelerate a natural market correction that throws BC into a recession. In that case it will not be the wealthy suffering, nor will the unemployed be buying cheap houses. But the homeowning middle class will be ground zero. How can BCers believe this political fairy tale? – Garth

For once I am ok with this draconian policy. Housing is a basic necessity (renting offers no escape from increasing property costs either) and the increasingly unaffordable cost of housing in Canada are turning the average person into a slave. If this is what it takes to make basic housing reasonably affordable, so be it.

#76 Vampire studies on 10.07.18 at 9:58 pm
65 thresher – one of the properties will be subject to cap gains. In this case it sounds like Gerry has declared the condo as his principal rez so he will not pay gains on this, so the Kelowna property would be subject to the gain. However, depending on how he has treated the property tax-wise, he may be able to defer that until he actually sells it.
————————————————————-
The story was clear, dude plans to retire to BC and that would be his primary residence in the future.

CRA is actually clear on this, sell primary residence, live at least 2 years in former secondary residence and that becomes your new primary residence for cap gains exemption going forward… i.e. You aren’t restricted to one primary residence for a life time in Canada, yet anyway…

Today is a gloomy and rainy day in Vancouver. Nevertheless I went to see my grandsons hockey game, my kids and their spouses came over with kids (some of them), we had our Thanksgiving dinner together and were thankful for what we have and where we are. Nevertheless, the human nature doesn’t change, just like drinking of Vikings at the long table together and planning for raids and future prospects, today its survival prospects in Vancouver. Everyone wants a decent life, place to live, enough income to cover comfortable living. Unfortunately it is not possible unlike what the socialists would like you to believe. Thankfully the parasitic plans of basic income were scrapped by the new government in Ontario, how can you afford it by taxing all of your most productive workers into oblivion. Nonetheless, globalization must be also scrapped to allow the locals a decent opportunity and life, otherwise the class disparity will grow and either a revolution or civil war will take place. If you look at history it is clear where it is all going to go. There is a fine line and nothing is white and black like many are led to believe.

“High real estate taxes will not benefit those who covet some. Just the opposite. But, you will learn.” – Garth

Housing isn’t an investment for me. I am about to learn what happens to speculators in BC. Nobody who owns a house and lives in it as a principle residence is getting any kind of tax. 99% of BCers will not be affected by this tax.

So, let’s see who is speculating and better yet, let’s see who is swimming naked. Big crash coming to BC and I am more than ready to weather any massive recession. Bring on the dark ages. I save and invest, not spend. Those reckless spenders borrowing to speculate and buy multiple homes have put many in a precarious situation. Mostly the younger generation.

Not doing anything and letting run away fraud and speculation is not an answer. Will end up in a bigger crash and wayyyyy more economic damage (re: Vancouver right now).

The people who spend without a pot to you know what in will learn. And I am glad to see NDP bring any kind of action. Hopefully they get more ideas to implement.

The only scum hanging onto the idea of don’t touch anything, scrap the tax, are those with money to lose – vested interest. And apparently that is a lot more people than previously thought.

Decide how much you are willing to spend on rent and stick to it. Move if you have to in order to stay at that price point. No one in their right mind would want buy at over inflated prices. Rent instead and watch all your money worries disapear.

#81 Taxes do not make anything cheaper. But in this instance they could accelerate a natural market correction that throws BC into a recession. In that case it will not be the wealthy suffering, nor will the unemployed be buying cheap houses. But the homeowning middle class will be ground zero. How can BCers believe this political fairy tale? – Garth

———————

This recession business is just fear-mongering. With the proper Gov’t incentives jobs lost in the bloated real-estate sector, will be offset by job creation due to hother (some high-tech) companies seeing a future in BC that they can attract and retain workers to live here. In the end it will lead to a better-balanced economy, not dominated by those who are in the business of flipping houses to one another. Let’s see where we are in 4 more years. NDP still is very popular in BC the last I checked.

Taxes do not make anything cheaper. But in this instance they could accelerate a natural market correction that throws BC into a recession. In that case it will not be the wealthy suffering, nor will the unemployed be buying cheap houses. But the homeowning middle class will be ground zero. How can BCers believe this political fairy tale? – Garth
……

Yes it’s too bad that the situation changed for Gerry when he purchased so long ago. However, the property taxes in BC are very low and don’t cover the things he uses here-doctors, roads, infrastructure and education (not for him but the people who will support him in his older age). It’s not an envy tax. It’s a tax for people who use services in BC but aren’t paying for it.

Drove by my bungalow 1,400 sq feet for sale.
30×100 lot.
That I sold 10 years ago. For 521 k.
Out of curiosity, phoned the realtor about the price.
1.3 mill, land only.
In the fricking Edmonds area in Burnaby.
Spanking new 4,000 sq foot beside it taking up the whole lot.
Empty
Local buyers.
My ass.

As my ol’ man always says (and most often when I don’t feel like listening to it), “Life ain’t fair.”

And despite this “injustice,” Gerald’s still got it pretty good in comparison to most, with plenty of lucrative options to choose from.

I won’t bore anyone by listing them all, but will say that if I were in his shoes and really wanted to keep the “spiritual” home, I’d offload the Calgary condo and rent
for those four months per year in Alberta instead. He may also want to consider moving his practice to BC, seeing that the new marijuana laws coupled with falling RE prices could push a good percentage of the BC population close to the edge and be a big boon for his profession.

Personally I love this tax! I live in the Burbs of Vancouver in a plane Jane house that I bought for $400k (nearly paid off) that peaked over $900k. My problem, the next step up (what I want) went from $650k to $1.5+ million. I’m 30 and my mortgage to upgrade would be more then my original house. I rent the basement, invest and make $180k per year at my day Job in Oil and Gas. Personally the more all these factors pummel the housing market the more luxurious my life will be (bigger house and less employment income to buy it) and my hard work and saving will mean more. I’m a conservative thinker, but realize nothing is free market about houses so using tax to punish people who don’t pay income tax here is goodwith me. My first choice would be abolish the ALR and build American style freeways to open up tons of land around Vancouver to pummel prices and huge me buying power by dew flying older folks housing wealth. Why should I give a rats ass about people who by birth age got opportunities I never had? I don’t expect them or the government to care about me, I’m self sufficient so why protect their wealth at my expense.

Considering that I will have to work about half my career just to pay for the price increases on real estate since I began working, and recessions last a lot less than half of a career, these threats of a slowing economy due to crashing RE are baseless. I could afford to take 10 years off work if there was a crash.

Upon reading this blog and the comments about Gerald’s situation, I went to my bookshelf and found my “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders” Fourth Edition (aka DSM-IV-TR). From the American Psychiatric Association.

I think I bought it about 1999.

Kelowna is not mentioned in it.

Gerry will be fine.

Most chapters mention Stan Brooks. A different case and diagnosis there, by golly.

This is the type of scenario I have seen over and over in my study,and because the Spring market of 2016 was so epic there are still a lot of cases to play out.

So they paid 1.79 in March 2016 and then had it back on the market by June 2016 trying to make a quick buck at 2.28.

Terminated the listing in October 2016 and with my study I have been able to show this is when the problems started for the speculators in Vancouver as the market slowly rolled over.

Too many people had the same plan, and then when the fall market failed to take flight, the people who were only looking to do it for the short term hit the first hurdle and a backlog of listings failed to clear before the holiday period of 2016/2017.

A lot of people took a couple of months of and came back for the 2017 spring market,when the lights were flashing Amber and the media and the real estate boards tried to convince consumers it was business as usual, but these guys waited until the fall to try it on for 2.58

Tone deaf,bad info,dunno,but they were going the wrong way, probably to try and get the same number as before, but let the buyers feel like they had a win.

Prices although still elevated had been softening for some time, and buyers by then had speculators from 2016 and spring 2017 to play against each other and older purchasers that were able to undercut them.

Small ,shallow victories, but the tide had definitely turned in most parts.

After trying one more time to pry a profit out of a deteriorating market, listing for 1.99 during spring 2018 ,they finally settled up and closed the account as stated just recently in September 2018

So three calendar years later, it’s all over, they took their Buckleys and can move on but thousands more are still in limbo.

The sellers carried a big stick for a long time but they got complacent and left it beside the pool while they and the market took a dip.

They went looking for it in the sauna and the buyers grabbed the stick and used it to barricade the sauna door.

Another mandate for socialism in BC and confiscation will surely begin. The fanatics will force tenants on you, like it or not. There is precedence for this in the UK, socialist Russia and China, where migrants are delegated housing by local council’s regardless of ownership status.

If you’re a “snowbird” expect to have your exit status recorded at the border and new “tenants” moved into your house, condo or t/h without your knowledge or permission without leave to appeal.

I believe this mandatory dictatorship without doubt will occur, and homeowners may return to Canada and find themselves homeless or find that the second home or bedroom they thought they owned has become logged on a quota registry, and you will be living in a hotel or sharing your refrigerator with complete strangers. This will be confiscation without compensation.

Secondly, there is no doubt, as there is also precedence in socialist Europe and China, that the number of bedrooms in your house will be tallied and owners will be forced to accept tenants of undetermined origin as ‘lodgers’ as has happened in Soviet states in Russia and China.

Doctor shortage in Victoria is now critical. You see, even Docs can’t afford to relocate here due to astronomical real estate prices. Thus, as they retire here, no one is replacing them. This means that elderly patients are now waiting for hours at walk-in clinics that have increasingly reduced hours due to Doc shortage. If the NDP can tank real estate prices by 50% or more, then we may attract more Doctors, nurses, firefighters, law enforcement professionals. If prices don’t tank, then we have a continuing societal collapse that will accelerate. Go for broke Comrade Horgan! Tear it down!!

If BC had electoral reform and a system like or similar to that of say France, the Greens would have been eliminated in the first round and the final runoff would have been LIB vs NDP which would have resulted in a majority for one of those two parties. The NDP might not be in power. The Green Party would not be holding the NDP hostage and a pipeline might be happnin’.

What I learned here is that one should simply shut up and move if you don’t like the circumstances and cant afford to live in your home city. But this is his “spiritual home” whatever the F that means.

———————————————-

Yes that’s right. Garth seems fond of telling ambitious young people they should move to Fredericton or Regina if they don’t like house prices (driven up by a myriad of government policies) in Toronto and Vancouver.

Well, there are many beautiful areas of the BC Interior where the speculation tax will not be levied. Gerry should move there if the tax troubles him so much.

Lemme help the poor guy out.
Sell both places. Relocate business to Banff and expand services to cover all the crazed locals and foreigners who might also need treatment. Buy a lakefront cottage in Kawarthas or some other lake district in Ontario.
Kelowna????who would want to go to Kelowna. It even rhymes with bologna!

65 thresher – one of the properties will be subject to cap gains. In this case it sounds like Gerry has declared the condo as his principal rez so he will not pay gains on this, so the Kelowna property would be subject to the gain. However, depending on how he has treated the property tax-wise, he may be able to defer that until he actually sells it.

——————————————-

But after he sells his Calgary condo in 5 years (cap gains exempt) and declares the Kelowna house his new primary residence, he will not have to pay cap gains on it if he decides to sell it some time in the future. Right? Or does it depends on the amount of time spent as a secondary residence vs primary residence over the duration of his ownership?

Gosh, the “Crab Bucket” mentality group is out in full force right now.

Pull everybody down to the same level; no new businesses started, no new authors, no new Canadian TV shows, nobody running the government (hmmm…!) No street buskers, no new coffee shops (with free WiFi) no Canadian Banks, no blogs to air ones discontent – nothing but whiners wandering the trash-laden wasteland wondering where the exuberance of life went.

He’s flagged up an article explaining why he is optimistic that climate change can be tackled, with firm action.

It says:

The practical insight is that there are two very different types of optimism. Complacent optimism is the feeling of a child waiting for presents. Conditional optimism is the feeling of a child who is thinking about building a treehouse. “If I get some wood and nails and persuade some other kids to help do the work, we can end up with something really cool.”

What the theory of endogenous technological progress supports is conditional optimism, not complacent optimism. Instead of suggesting that we can relax because policy choices don’t matter, it suggests to the contrary that policy choices are even more important than traditional theory suggests.

#118 Howard
No, the Greens came second in many ridings where the first-round victor took less than 50%, so they would be in many of the runoffs in a hypothetical two-round system.

Do you not realize we elect legislatures at the riding level ?
……………………..

The Greens took 17% of the popular vote in BC. That is why we need electoral reform.

——————————————-

I’m not sure how that’s a reason for electoral reform? They won 17% and got 3 seats. What’s the problem? Surely a better reason for reform is to prevent majority governments winning only 35% of the vote.

Anyway in any electoral reform away from FPTP, smaller parties like the Greens are likely to do better, not worse.

If the steerage section of Garth’s blog is at all representative of the general population, then it would seem that BC residents are a very bitter and envious lot. Doesn’t sound like a nice place at all to live.

#106 Matt – you hit the nail on the head. If you are numerate *and* only have a home to live in, falling prices are a win for most.

Some people here who are balls deep in property leverage will cry “think of the first time buyer in negative equity!” but this is a small number of people. Revising prices will help many more than it hurts.

But it will hurt lazy landlords.

Patently incorrect. 70% of Canadians own homes, and have the bulk of their net worth there. A politically-engineered market dive could have profound economic consequences, as opposed to a natural market-induced correction. – Garth

@#113 Flop
“Paid 1.79 March 2016
Sold 1.71 September 2018
This is the type of scenario I have seen over and over in my study,and because the Spring market of 2016 was so epic there are still a lot of cases to play out.
So they paid 1.79 in March 2016 and then had it back on the market by June 2016 trying to make a quick buck at 2.28.”

+++++

Yep.
The is about to turn into one royal bbq with a lot of prime rib steaks being burned into charcoal.
Speaking of fires.
Havent seen many houses or condos go up in smoke yet. Maybe insurance companies are getting better at denying claims.
The early 80’s was fugly.
A friend of mine who was an excellent carpenter went from building houses to cleaning offices at night to pay the bills ……..in about 6 months……..
I dont think the market will slam shut that hard but if it’s anywhere near as bad . Houses went from 250k to 80k in less than a year.
Who knows, perhaps Millenials might even discover how “easy” Boomers had it in the early 80’s when interest rates and govt policies crushed the economy.

Technically by their own rule, Gerry hasn’t benefited until he has sold. Perhaps it would be ‘more fair’ or ‘less unfair’ to tax upon sale, then at least it gets the flippers, not the people who have committed long term to the communities. Not that I like the thought of an additional home sales tax either.

Re#42-This will probably happen a little. I don’t think most people avoid taxes to be greedy, but moreso when they feel they have been treated unfairly.

> Patently incorrect. 70% of Canadians own homes, and have the bulk of their net worth there. A politically-engineered market dive could have profound economic consequences, as opposed to a natural market-induced correction. – Garth

I never get this kind of reasoning. If all homes are 400k then all homes become 200k, people are better off.

They can’t release the equity, because they have to live somewhere. So why does it need to be 400k? So they can give 400k to their son who needs 400k because houses are 400k? If they are 200k it still works.

You can’t unlock these “savings” in totality. That’s why bankers hand out fiat money like confetti (which is created when they extend a new loan). It’s *not* redeemable for a barrel of oil.

Apart from people caught in negative equity, who else “suffers” from a correction so houses are actually affordable, Garth? Their use as some kind of wealth store is mocked by yourself daily. Because it cannot work.

People spend years paying off mortgages, historically at far higher rates than today, eschewing saving and investing to instead reduce debt. The typical person ends up with a home, little in the way of financial assets, with the ultimate need to sell, downsize, and live off the equity realized. An engineered crash obviously disrupts that. Worse, a real estate event which has been designed by government to ‘increase affordability’ through increased taxation pushes property values lower, robs people of imputed wealth, affects their spending habits and at the same time causes an economic reversal – especially in a place like BC where 25% of provincial GDP is housing-related. Economic activity slows, unemployment increases, government spending swells as tax revenues fall and real estate sales stall badly. Humans do not buy things that are getting cheaper, particularly when jobs are in peril. It’s lose-lose-lose. Your logic is naive, simplistic and incorrect. – Garth

I didn’t see them complaining when mortgage rates dropped from 10%-11% down to now 2% to 4%. They have no idea or don’t care how economics and the real world works. When interest rates drop alot , housing becomes much more expensive. It is basic economics.

They think that they can force people to give housing to whoever one they want. Rent controls don’t work and these policies will not work either. All this will do is run out good paying jobs and business anything from carpenters to electricians etc. We are talking really well paying jobs and income lost here.

The NDP will eventually lose and they will end up like here in Ontario as a lost relic of the past. What a bunch of brain dead politicians, voters, supporters.

Really?
Poor taste?
Need a time out in your safe place?
You must avoid all live stand up comedy shows or Netflix for fear of hearing uncomfortable, controversial, sexist, racist, “labelling” .
How conventionally boring “modern” life has become.

@#57 PBrasseur on 10.07.18 at 9:01 pm
Such arbitrary extortion should be illegal but with our activists juges appointed by socialists politicians not a chance.

I wonder if Trump was referring to Canada when he was talking about s**those countries, maybe he should….
__________________________
Life is pretty damn amazing here in Canada, TO specifically for me.
I like to stay grounded though so I often come here to peruse the comments. thank you curmudgeons, you know who you are. ahem, ustabe, pbrasseur, dolce vida, stanb…

Another chart from stats canada about canadian wage growth for almost same period of time, i don’t understand why they stopped on 2011, maybe salaries and wages are making very steep comeback down to 1980s levels.

I have this super smart neboughr two house over, when i need computor advice he is my go to guy, knows everything.

So yesterday i send him an email about asking does he knows anything more about this supermicro fiasco, he obviously miss read it and replays back are you planning on building crypto mining machine… Now that got me wondering is where are all those stolen bitcoin went.

Yes! I need billions of dollars, the powers of government, an army of law enforcers ,prosecutors and prison guards to bring the genocidal real estate market and its fans for to justice for their crimes against humanity. I am sure the list of defendants would cut cross all races, income groups , ideologies ,sexuality
and religions. Therefore we will not be bigoted or communist about it. The Canadian swamp would be drained by the process to a large degree. Genocide is more than gas chambers and firing squads. It is often a process that leads to the end of a group through no fault of its own in whole or in part by any means.
I have no doubt that the desire to profit from real estate exists deliberately and regardless of the cost to society as a whole or members there of. This is the equivalent to intent to destroy by making the cost of life too high for the sake of profits. In the case of real estate it is to profit even if it destroys by any means. Poverty, celibacy, deprivation of habitat, exposure to crime, disease and environmental factors and prevention of family formation…. People have swapped their morals for money and it must end Garth.
Remember real estate is only a place to live and work.
It isn’t an investment.

Seven in ten Canadians own real estate. Your genocide argument must be satirical. Or, you need help. Can I recommend a psychiatrist in Kelowna? – Garth

Here is a key excerpt that I did not know about inter-provincial movement of people OUT of Toronto and Vancouver:

“Stats around whether younger Canadians are choosing to stay closer to home are still sparse, though Statistics Canada did find that between 2012 and 2017 Toronto’s net interprovincial migration – the difference between the number of people moving into Toronto and moving out of it and into different areas of the province – was minus 142,465. British Columbia’s Lower Mainland, which includes Vancouver, also saw more people leaving than arriving, with a net interprovincial migration of minus 18,670.

While Statscan doesn’t say why these cities are experiencing these trends, Patrick Adler, a research associate at Toronto’s Martin Prosperity Institute, says “there might be an aversion to the high sticker prices on property in Toronto or Vancouver.” ”

No kidding – would have thought Van would be as high or higher than Toronto.

Maybe some are reading this blog and following Garth’s advice. Important trend that will likely continue until prices come back to some sense of normalcy.

@#106 Matt on 10.08.18 at 12:20 am
Personally I love this tax! I live in the Burbs of Vancouver in a plane Jane house that I bought for $400k (nearly paid off) that peaked over $900k. My problem, the next step up (what I want) went from $650k to $1.5+ million. I’m 30 and my mortgage to upgrade would be more then my original house. I rent the basement, invest and make $180k per year at my day Job in Oil and Gas. Personally the more all these factors pummel the housing market the more luxurious my life will be (bigger house and less employment income to buy it) and my hard work and saving will mean more. I’m a conservative thinker, but realize nothing is free market about houses so using tax to punish people who don’t pay income tax here is goodwith me. My first choice would be abolish the ALR and build American style freeways to open up tons of land around Vancouver to pummel prices and huge me buying power by dew flying older folks housing wealth. Why should I give a rats ass about people who by birth age got opportunities I never had? I don’t expect them or the government to care about me, I’m self sufficient so why protect their wealth at my expense.
_______________________
lololol, typical conservative. want less gov involvement but if it benefits me, me, me, i’m ok with its.

When the NDP and other left leaning parties increase electricity costs, heating costs, gasoline costs, housing costs etc. etc. etc. for Canadians through their green energy and green tax, carbon tax, green regulations and other policies through that make everyone’s cost of living less and less affordable.

What do you call that? It is called B.S. The more they tax, over regulate or put in destructive regulations, they make it just more impossible for every worker, employer, business and Canadian in general to survive and live.

The same people they help to claim, lower to middle class Canadians are hurt not helped in the process. Two faced liars is what they are, plain and simple.

I love how all this winey crowd thinks a drop in prices like they want will leave the economy intact, and they will have mountains of cash with which to buy a home without “working and saving” for a good period of time… try sitting with the “educated university crowd for a while.

… what do you mean i have to give up my three destination holidays a month to save… so i can buy a house.

homes should be a right… and i expect a 5000 square foot starter home now…

As stated many times on this blog, home ownership is not a right in this country. If keeping two houses is too expensive for this guy, he can sell the second home and rent when in Kelowna. What is the problem Garth?

Taxes need to be fairly and justly applied, not capriciously. So many whiny, envious, vindictive people here. Disappointing. – Garth

Really?
Poor taste?
Need a time out in your safe place?
You must avoid all live stand up comedy shows or Netflix for fear of hearing uncomfortable, controversial, sexist, racist, “labelling” .
How conventionally boring “modern” life has become.

I guess my “name” really pushes the sensitivity buttons.

———————————————

Can you calm down? Pointing out that something is in poor taste is not the same thing as shrieking and yelling and demanding a safe space or demanding that opposing opinions be silenced. Learn a little nuance will you.

And if you knew anything about comedy, it’s usually only funny if it pokes fun at real stereotypes (why do you think Russell Peters is so hilarious?). There has to be a link between the joke and reality. Otherwise it will elicit a few eyerolls or befuddled grimaces and not much more. Such is the case comparing the spec tax to a head tax.

Really?
Poor taste?
Need a time out in your safe place?
You must avoid all live stand up comedy shows or Netflix for fear of hearing uncomfortable, controversial, sexist, racist, “labelling” .
How conventionally boring “modern” life has become.

1% is a lot? Sorry, most US cities have property taxes over 1%. B.C. property taxes are way too low.

Homes are not investments. If you want to invest buy an ETF or AAPL. Why anyone would want to “invest” in RE where jealousy can destroy your wealth and liquidity at a whim is beyond me. And as for tenants? Being a landlord is way more work an hassle than it’s worth.

This is not a property tax. It’s a surtax. – Garth

——

Sorry Garth a tax is a tax. I don’t care what you call it. This is like a property tax on different class of owners. B.C. still has low taxes on properties for owners of principal residences.

I’m a capitalist but don’t see the problem with this tax. Mostly because this market has been way distorted and there was a lot of illegal money driving this along with low rates.

Property taxes in PEI are set the same for everyone, but residents get a 50% deduction, effectively meaning that non-residents do pay 100% more then the locals.

When I asked about that, locals told me it was because they didn’t want to see outsiders coming in and buying up all their waterfront, driving up the prices. We were to stay in their rental accommodations.

Looking at the house cost plus the $6-20,000 I spent per year on my house vs the cost of renting, I’m inclined to agree. They can have the second residence, and I’ll take my money elsewhere. And this way I’m not locked into visiting only PEI every summer – I hear NS is nice.

If I’d pulled out at the beginning the PEI economy would be 1/2 million the poorer. What if all the “come-from-away’s” did that? You bet we contribute – massively to the local economy.

Incorrect. Taxes at 50% higher for non-locals, not 100% more. And those who live there 183 days per year pay no surtax. – Garth

To be respected and effective taxes must be faur and equally applied. Slapping people because they’ve had a family cottage for decades, for example, is unjustifiable. High real estate taxes will not benefit those who covet some. Just the opposite. But, you will learn. – Garth

Exactly, Garth.

You pejoratively call this an “envy tax”.

So then, you would of course agree that the lower tax rate on stock market gains should be called an “entitled, superiority complex, unsubstantiated, antiquated, mostly wealthy-class white male privileged non-tax”.

To do anything less simply makes you a complete hypocrite, unwilling to apply equal standards of reason and fairness.

Surely, that is not you…?

ALL DOLLARS ARE EQUAL. TAX THEM THE SAME.

PERIOD.

Those who risk capital, especially when it is invested in the economy (not in a bank account), deserve to be taxed less. Without that incentive, why take the chance? The economy would wither. – Garth

> Humans do not buy things that are getting cheaper, particularly when jobs are in peril.

This is old-style economic thinking, that doesn’t bear out.

I’m typing this on a computer. These have gotten cheaper since the year of their creation. I knew when I bought it I could get the same spec a year later for a lower price. But I needed one now.

Same for cars.

Why on earth would sinking all our labour into land that *already exists*, that requires that we go into huge debt which allows bankers to dip into our wages via interest payments, be a good thing?

How will they release this equity when they need somewhere to live until they die?

Printing fake wealth by giving with one hand (yay equity!) and taking with the other (yay interest repayments and 30 year mortgages) is not sane. What’s more, you can only continue to give free equity by having prices rise above wages so long as rates keep going down. This has a lower bound of zero. We hit that.

Honestly Garth, your reasoning only makes sense at a fixed point in time, post fact. Once you step back and extrapolate, most people can see it’s a highway to nowhere.

You should have realised this before you allowed the Homebuyer’s Plan. It’s a can kicking exercise that fails to reason beyond the immediate horizon. We can all fix the economy until the end of the week.

The NDP created “govt car insurance”( ICBC) in BC in the 1970’s and while it became a huge cash cow for successive govts of all political stripes( NDP, Socred, Liberal)…..now it is hitting the proverbial “wall” financially.

The average cost of car insurance here is $2000 per year. ( price assumes an excellent safe driving record ie no accidents for at least 5 – 10 years. Assumes you are not driving a “luxury” car ie one worth 100k or more. Assumes minimal liability coverage and fire , theft, collision).
Side note. A friend’s 17 year old son purchased a 10 year old “beater” for $2500 and is paying….$4500/year as a “New Driver”….thus the days of young kids learning to drive are pretty much done in BC.
ICBC rates are expected to increase substantially in the next few years since the NDP have regained power and the Minister in charge has declared ICBC’s finances (after reviewing the books natch) “a dumpster fire”….
We lotus eaters are nervously awaiting annual 10% (or more) car insurance rate increases over the next few years.
Just curious as to what other blog dogs are paying for car insurance Canada wide as opposed to socialist BC.
Assume 5 -10 year accident free “safe driver” discount.
Assume 5 year old vehicle now worth aprox 25k.
Assume basic insurance (PLPD) and fire,theft,collision.

86 Remembrance – yes I understand that you can have multiple PRs over your life. Just not at the same time. The gain made on the Kelowna prop from the time he bought until the time he declares it his PR is deemed a cap gain. So $500k, half of that taxable.

123 Howard – Gerry will enjoy a tax free cap gain on the condo if it has always been his PR. What I haven’t figured out yet is when he has to actually pay the cap gain on the Kelowna prop. I did some googling and he may be able to defer that until he actually sells that property.

I’d also add it’s a really weird thing to say “people don’t buy things that are falling in price” about housing.

People buy houses because they need to live. If housing fell to half the current price they’d still buy them.

And then they would have significantly *more* disposable income to spend.

This way, people who work more and create more wealth would have more disposable income. Isn’t that what you want?

Or do you want to go to the other end of the problem, and create more money by giving money to unproductive landlords, who are leaching off the rest of the economy, unproductive. They then drive the economy via unearned income which encourages even more parasitic activity instead of actual wealth creation.

This is what has occurred over the past 20 years as the parasitic side of the economy has driven us:

* banking – which is a cost center, the more it costs the worse we are off
* landlordism which is also a cost center

Who wants to encourage more of this versus more people doing actual things that *need* to be done, like food, education, healthcare ?

This is a classic failure of reasoning to separate out wealth creation versus wealth appropriation. Though this blog isn’t technical, which is fine, I can see from your reader comments that quite a few people are almost putting their finger on this, though they lack the terms to spell it out.

Landlords provide accommodation, and take a risk in doing so. They do not leech. – Garth

Re#42-This will probably happen a little. I don’t think most people avoid taxes to be greedy, but moreso when they feel they have been treated unfairly.
—————————————————————–Capital gains tax is payable on the differential of amount paid + expenses and amount of appreciation at sale. Anyone who might complain about tax dodging maybe should be pushing for better enforcement instead…

> Landlords provide accommodation, and take a risk in doing so. They do not leech. – Garth

But most of the cost of renting is the cost of carry on the debt for the land, for most of the accommodation (urban centers).

Landlords are distributed debt collectors for the banks, which can create unlimited fiat (see BoE and BoA papers for agreement on this).

Landlords do provide accommodation, I agree. This is a building *on* the land. They add value here and should be rewarded for this. Most landlords don’t build anything, in reality, they exploit decreasing debt costs in a world of finite land.

So:

1. let’s tax the unimproved value of land to capture the societal value of the land for society, not for the banks who can create fiat at will

2. let’s not tax the *improved* value of land because if someone builds a 5 story mansion block that provides safe, clean, warm accommodation for people they deserve to gain more from this than the guy running an asphalt car park next door

3. let’s not tax labour, which creates wealth, which we want more of when people are willing to sell it

4. let’s stop banks from running countries into the ground via high land prices, which they can always, always increase by making it more rewarding to appropriate wealth via land speculation.

This is the plan that proponents of land value tax support.

They want people who add more value to be rewarded more. They don’t want communism. They can just see that we are being taken for a ride by the bankers and land speculators.

As could many, many economists throughout history. Such as Adam Smith. Ricardo. Friedman.

But if you just look very simply at the system and say “it works, this land speculator made a profit so he *must* be adding value”, you won’t reach this conclusion. Life is more complex than this, the state creates an unlevel playing field via tax breaks (capital gains), safety nets (CMCH), privileges (money creation).

I know you know all this, but you seem to have a blind spot when it comes to land.
Land is not the basis of wealth. Basing a tax system upon it is as ludicrous as thinking we can return to the gold standard. – Garth

156# crowdedelevatorfartz on 10.08.18 at 11:38 am
Totally off subject.

The NDP created “govt car insurance”( ICBC) in BC in the 1970’s and while it became a huge cash cow for successive govts of all political stripes( NDP, Socred, Liberal)…..now it is hitting the proverbial “wall” financially.

The average cost of car insurance here is $2000 per year. ( price assumes an excellent safe driving record ie no accidents for at least 5 – 10 years. Assumes you are not driving a “luxury” car ie one worth 100k or more. Assumes minimal liability coverage….

ICBC rates are expected to increase substantially in the next few years since the NDP have regained power and the Minister in charge has declared ICBC’s finances (after reviewing the books natch) “a dumpster fire”….
We lotus eaters are nervously awaiting annual 10% (or more
Just curious as to what other blog dogs are paying for car insurance Canada wide as opposed to socialist BC.
Assume 5 -10 year accident free “safe driver” discount.
Assume 5 year old vehicle now worth aprox 25k.
Assume basic insurance (PLPD) and fire,theft,collision.

—– good question ———

I have 3 vehicles. The Suv and Pick up. Both zero real value, no collision insurance coverage on either. Yes, about $150 per month, $1700 per year! Ouch.

At this time, I chose not to pay $600-$800 in new car leases, plus $250 for insurance on them each.

Note :: In BC a good Dash Camera is essential !

Second time this year someone ( wink ; ) ) drove Into the Dollar store. 2nd time people have driven through a brick/cedar fence, up the curb at an intersection. And these people don’t smoke drugs!!

I think your point of car insurance, and related running costs are relevant to this blog. Just add it up over ten years. Good math, dumb choice to go that expensive vehicle route. Cars are now dropping like elevators with a broken security cable .

I don’t get why Garth is always crying over people who have two or more homes. It is sad to see houses that sit empty much of the year because of some ones frivolous ways. I am supposed to sympathize or care about upper income people who need to pay some money to keep their unnecessary second home..seriously?? These people can just sell and will often have made hundreds of thousands in profits on their second home.

Garth has been going on and on about how overpriced real estate is and when the government finally does something about it he whines and rails about how unfair this is to these precious 1 percenters. Yes it will collapse real estate prices but this is good and necessary..yes it will cause a bad and long recession but out of these depths a real fundamental recovery can take place with affordable real estate for all.

You must be toking good stuff. Out of recessions comes misery – and not for the 1%ers. – Garth

1. Let the government use tax collected
from me to look after community needs.
I will end my generous donations
To BC Charities. Will send elsewhere.
2. I will raise prices on all products
and services that I provide to BC customers.
3. Whatever is required to balance the books
And recover the tax.
4. I would be totally content to have my
BC income tax rate raised instead of this new tax.
If I do well I am happy to share. If I have a no
profit Then I will pay No BC tax.

Caprice? Has been widely debated for some time, current government ran on it and got a mandate, implementation was telegraphed and expected, and enjoys broad voter support, even among homeowners.

Caprice is when you wake up one crisp October morning and decide, out of the blue, to impose a new tax on income trusts, widely held by retirees, at a stroke lowering their incomes and decimating their asset values.

The North Remembers.

One capricious act does not justify another. At the time I resolutely criticized the federal government for its betrayal. – Garth

86 Remembrance – yes I understand that you can have multiple PRs over your life. Just not at the same time. The gain made on the Kelowna prop from the time he bought until the time he declares it his PR is deemed a cap gain. So $500k, half of that taxable.

123 Howard – Gerry will enjoy a tax free cap gain on the condo if it has always been his PR. What I haven’t figured out yet is when he has to actually pay the cap gain on the Kelowna prop. I did some googling and he may be able to defer that until he actually sells that property.
—————————————————————-
Vampire, as I read the relevant tax sections its a binary calculation of the use test in the scenario Garth describes: after 2 years of declared principal residence of the BC property, its considered primary… Unless, if that formerly 2nd property was used for (reported though there should be no other kind) income such as a rental and later converted to primary, then yes, cap gains calculations apply at time of status change, not at sale…

Something tells me Gerry-like most property owners in BC-were very happy over the past 15 years watching their property values exceed any regular market returns that follow recognized investment principles. Since 2008, you’ve been preaching how unrealistic this market was and how it would end badly. Chaos breeds chaos. It stands to reason that it was chaotic on the way up, it will be equally chaotic on the way down.

Just wait to see what will happen if Eby has his way and starts to seize properties. It will only take one or two to cause an immediate selloff to move money to a safer place. If you have any doubt, grab some popcorn, sit back, and watch.

You support a government seizing private property? There’s a name for that. – Garth

This guy has many options which most Canadians don’t. Do we need to be sorry for him for perhaps not being able to afford to pay taxes on TWO homes he ones? This blog has 100% turned into rich guy whining. Completely out of touch with regular people.

Since when was this for regular people? We just thought you needed a drink, or something. – Garth

“Slapping people because they’ve had a family cottage for decades, for example, is unjustifiable”

Please read the legislation. Cottages as most define them are exempt from the speculation tax. 95% of the land in BC is exempt from the tax. The only way you pay the tax is if you have multiple homes or vacation homes in one of the few designated cities that is actually in the city. These are the cities where people have gone bonkers and speculation is rampant. What do you think Gerry would say if his children or grand children in Alberta had to pay a million dollars for a run down home. I can guarantee you he would be one of the first to be calling on his province to implement a similar tax. It is hard for people who do not live here to realize how crazy people have become over real estate. It has turned many in this province in to mindless foaming at the mouth zombies. This legislation is fully supported by most of the people of BC and will help bring sanity back to these cities

It is impossible to make assets cheaper by taxing them more without caving the entire market and, in the case of BC, the provincial economy. Jeez, people, grow up. The tax-&-spend gang you elected is zooming you. – Garth

#86 Remembrancer on 10.07.18 at 10:37 pm
#76 Vampire studies on 10.07.18 at 9:58 pm
65 thresher – one of the properties will be subject to cap gains. In this case it sounds like Gerry has declared the condo as his principal rez so he will not pay gains on this, so the Kelowna property would be subject to the gain. However, depending on how he has treated the property tax-wise, he may be able to defer that until he actually sells it.
————————————————————-
The story was clear, dude plans to retire to BC and that would be his primary residence in the future.

CRA is actually clear on this, sell primary residence, live at least 2 years in former secondary residence and that becomes your new primary residence for cap gains exemption going forward… i.e. You aren’t restricted to one primary residence for a life time in Canada, yet anyway…

———————-
If I rented a property for 6 years and then moved into it for two.. I don’t have to pay capital gains tax? I’m pretty sure you have to pay capital gains tax once you change the use of the property.

On regular basis you advise people to rent if the housing is too expensive to buy or move out of Van or TO if renting is too expensive. Your buddy Gerry can do the same if he can’t afford taxes on his second home.
And what BC government is doing is absolutely necessery and just. And it is something they are clearly mandated by the democratic majority to do. And as you can see this is hitting housing sales and prices hard in BC. And this is only the beginning.
BTW “Delusional” is very appropriate title for this blog. You got that right.

Actually, the NDP-Green coalition government was elected by nobody. They cooked it up in Victoria. Liberals received the highest number of votes among individual parties. So much for democracy. – Garth

Sure, it’s been inane, political, bizarre… but I sincerely hope that the vast majority of the comments coming from people who purport to live in BC are just trolls posting to get reactions on a blog with know high visibility.

Ontario, private Insurance. I think with private insurance, your rates might benefit if you don’t cost them money, whereas with government insurance it’s “social”, so you pay more to cover the crappy drivers.

#128 FOUR FINGERS WATSON on 10.08.18 at 8:16 am
#107 Lorne on 10.08.18 at 12:36 am
#59 FOUR FINGERS WATSON on 10.07.18 at 9:04 pm
#41 Lorne
….and, you may have noticed, they are not in favour of the pipeline as presented.
…………………………..

‘Meanwhile, families are crowded into apartments’. This being a justification for the additional tax. So let us look at the numbers for a minute. As per a quick Google search with current (October 2018) results, the average price of a 3 bedroom house in Vancouver is $2 million as per the BC realtor site. I am presuming the apartment family is a typical 2 adults, 2 children scenario. Thus 3 bedrooms would be needed. The typical rent for a 2 bedroom apartment (hence the crowded scenario) is $2,650 per month. So let us say that the tax policies will result in housing prices decreasing by 50%. Now the average price of a 3 bedroom house is only $1 million. The handy online mortgage calculator gives 3.39% for a 5 year fixed & states that with a 15% downpayment the mortgage would be $850,000 & cost $3,948 per month. Somehow I do not see a crowded apartment family having the funds to move up to a house purchase given their monthly housing costs would increase by at least 1/3. So this great housing fix doesn’t look like it will happen any time soon, even with the punitive tax. Housing prices will still be out of reach for the financially challenged, especially since mortgage rates are creeping higher.

As I said, it is a fairy tale irresponsible leaders have fed to gullible citizens. The fact is is believed underscores the financial illiteracy that helped lead to this situation. — Garth

#185 Daughter of Ponzi on 10.08.18 at 1:46 pm
On regular basis you advise people to rent if the housing is too expensive to buy or move out of Van or TO if renting is too expensive. Your buddy Gerry can do the same if he can’t afford taxes on his second home.
And what BC government is doing is absolutely necessery and just. And it is something they are clearly mandated by the democratic majority to do. And as you can see this is hitting housing sales and prices hard in BC. And this is only the beginning.
BTW “Delusional” is very appropriate title for this blog. You got that right.

Actually, the NDP-Green coalition government was elected by nobody. They cooked it up in Victoria. Liberals received the highest number of votes among individual parties. So much for democracy. – Garth
……..
Correct, they received 1566 votes province wide, more than the NDP, so both parties received ~40% of the total votes (of ~2 000 000 votes cast). The NDP/Green coalition received 57% of the votes cast….sounds like a REAL democratic majority, unlike the 40% that the Lieberals received

Coalition governments are not democratically elected. That does not make them illegitimate, but you cannot pretend that people who chose one party (Greens) equally supported the other (NDP). They did not. This was engineered by leaders to seize power. – Garth

#162 crowdedelevatorfartz on 10.08.18 at 11:38 am
Totally off subject.

Just curious as to what other blog dogs are paying for car insurance Canada wide as opposed to socialist BC.
Assume 5 -10 year accident free “safe driver” discount.
Assume 5 year old vehicle now worth aprox 25k.

@#180 jerry
“What do you think Gerry would say if his children or grand children in Alberta had to pay a million dollars for a run down home. I can guarantee you he would be one of the first to be calling on his province to implement a similar tax. It is hard for people who do not live here to realize how crazy people have become over real estate. It has turned many in this province in to mindless foaming at the mouth zombies. This legislation is fully supported by most of the people of BC and will help bring sanity back to these cities’

+++++

100% agreement.
I wasnt in a taxi at the Vancouver airport a few weeks ago longer than 30 seconds and the driver started babbling about his 3 “investment” houses.

The whole market needs a reboot and if that means a major economic downturn that will be blamed on the naive dippers( instead of the Liberals who pumped it up) ……. so ….be…….it.
No one can afford to live( rent OR own) here any more.

“We only kindly ask [the US side] to specify what is meant when we are accused of violating the INF. In turn, we make especially specific claims under the same agreement concerning the deployment in Europe (in Romania, and soon in Poland) of installations that can launch not only interceptor missiles, but also Tomahawks (impact cruise missiles).”

Romania is hosting a US missile shield capable of shooting down rockets from countries such as Iran that Washington says could one day reach major European cities.

trash talkin’?
But Hutchison’s comments Tuesday were the first time a high-ranking US official indicated that the Pentagon might consider anything more than diplomatic action, should the Russian missiles become operational.

You must be toking good stuff. Out of recessions comes misery – and not for the 1%ers. – Garth

So are you saying that you agree that we should outlaw recesssions which are or were a normal part of the economic cycle for eon??? I guess you really believe the central bankers are omnipotent and geniuses..its their financial engineering and keeping interest rates far too low for far too long that created the real estate bubble int he first place. What are you smoking Garth??

“Actually, the NDP-Green coalition government was elected by nobody. They cooked it up in Victoria. Liberals received the highest number of votes among individual parties. So much for democracy. – Garth”

Governments aren’t directly elected, they are formed by those who are elected. When no one party wins an outright majority forming a coalition is a way to overcome the impasse and provide the electorate with a functioning goverment.

To call this perfectly legitimate coalition government “cooked up” not only besmirches your many years of honourable public service but provides ammunition for extremists on both sides.

I said it was not illegitimate, but also not the democratic mandate that was suggested. Climb off your pedestal. – Garth

158 NoName on 10.08.18 at 11:18 am
pence’s diversion story !
maybe he should head over to salton city east jesus
created from discarded waste

salton sea ecological disaster

housing bust from the past

A ghost town in the making: How Salton Sea – California’s largest lake – went from bustling resort popular with celebrities to a ‘public health disaster’ where the remaining residents choke on toxic dust

The Salton Sea, California’s largest lake, was created by accident in 1905 and was transformed into a vacation hotspot by developers who built up the shoreline with resorts, hotels, yacht clubs and more
By the 1950s and 60s thousands flocked to relax at the Salton Sea, including celebrities like Frank Sinatra, but during the 70s tourism declined and the resort towns around the lake were left in disrepair”

“We only kindly ask [the US side] to specify what is meant when we are accused of violating the INF. In turn, we make especially specific claims under the same agreement concerning the deployment in Europe (in Romania, and soon in Poland) of installations that can launch not only interceptor missiles, but also Tomahawks (impact cruise missiles).”

Romania is hosting a US missile shield capable of shooting down rockets from countries such as Iran that Washington says could one day reach major European cities.

trash talkin’?
But Hutchison’s comments Tuesday were the first time a high-ranking US official indicated that the Pentagon might consider anything more than diplomatic action, should the Russian missiles become operational.

“I said it was not illegitimate, but also not the democratic mandate that was suggested. Climb off your pedestal. – Garth”

I’ll give you that about legitimacy as you stated it in a later comment which I didn’t read yet. However the Liberals only won two more seats than the NDP in one of the closest elections in BC’s history. Libs popular vote tally was only 1500 more, that’s razor thin, yet somehow they managed two more seats? The joys of gerrymandering and FPTP.

Neither party had a majority to govern but a functioning government needs to be formed not “cooked up”, that kind of language is divisive.

NDP’s pre-election platform clearly outlined many of the steps they would take with regards to real estate in BC. The electorate were fully aware of this before voting. Do they have a mandate to implement them?

Mandates are fuzzy at best, does the electorate really like us or did the electorate vote for us because we were the lesser of two evils? Democratic governments the world over have governed successfully with far weaker mandates than the NDP and Green coalition.

Will the outcome of this coalition be a success or a disaster for BC, who knows? Residents of BC will have to live with those consequences.

Since Canada and all governments and agencies, federal, provincial, municipal all over promised pensions, benefits to their public sector workers. We need a public sector pension and benefits tax of 35% to start and higher income earners 50%.

This should be done also for other benefits for all others that are still tax free like WSIB, social assistance, Federal supplements etc.

This way all the pension and benefits deficit in this country can be addressed. They don’t like paying for their crap and liek to tax only the rest of us. NDP, Liberal, Green, Communist party etc. are all part of the thievery class.

The hard working wise wealthy guys will buy all the YVR housing before it ever gets cheap enough for the parasites. Cap rate just gets better with lower prices. Rents don’t drop easily. Government is our friend and scares away many potential Landlords with heavy rules. But the pros can handle that. Raise my BC income tax if I make big Money then we both win. CRA and BC govt have been my partners for all my working days. 70 now and still grinding at it.

#70 Poor Gerald on 10.07.18 at 9:22 pm
His spiritual home is only worth 900K.

900K for a place in Kelowna that we know is at least 1998 or older? What the hell is going on in BC with house prices?

And man, life much be so tough for Gerald.

Wait until we build the wall and make Alberta pay for it.

Just be lucky the NDP caved and cut this tax down by 50%.

They should have stuck with 2% plus having to rent the place out all year, not half the year.

Plays right into the vacationer rental slumlord hands where they rent the place out over the winter and kick the people out to price gouge summer vacationers for 15k over the summer.

Locals first.
—————————————————————-

You realize there are a large number of British Columbians that come and work in Alberta right? Same with East coasters. Do you hear people in Alberta complain that their jobs have been taken and that we should build a wall?

And residents of BC make money by exporting marijuana in their gasoline and natural gas powered trucks as was described in some books about mafia.
They make a lot of money so it is logical that so called real estate is expensive.

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The views expressed are those of the author, Garth Turner, a Raymond James Financial Advisor, and not necessarily those of Raymond James Ltd. It is provided as a general source of information only and should not be considered to be personal investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell securities. Investors considering any investment should consult with their Investment Advisor to ensure that it is suitable for the investor's circumstances and risk tolerance before making any investment decision. The information contained in this blog was obtained from sources believed to be reliable, however, we cannot represent that it is accurate or complete. Raymond James Ltd. is a member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund.